Illimitable
by Miss Selah
Summary: Thirteen hours was never enough. Not for him. He will have her, even if he has to do it over and over...


* * *

**Illimitable**

* * *

He always knew that in the end, no matter how stubborn his sweet Sarah was, he would win.

"Give me the child."

No matter how hard she fought, they were destined to be together, for now, forever. If he had any doubt of that, the ballroom spell that had been cast upon them when she ate the fruit dispelled that. It had shown them their fate, the two lovers, and while he was absolutely positive that it wouldn't all be roses, he remembered holding her in his arms, and how utterly _right _she felt pressed against his body.

"Through dangers untold, and hardships unnumbered…"

He always knew that she would be his.

"…I have fought my way here, to the castle beyond the goblin city, to take back the child you had stolen from me."

Jareth was, of course, wrong.

"My will is as strong, and my kingdom's as great."

At least, he had read that silly little red book of hers. So while he wasn't happy, at least he was prepared for what came next.

"_You _have no power over me."

His world shattered.

* * *

The good thing about having powers beyond any human comprehension, though, is that you get more than one shot at things.

When her friends had gone home and she had tried to go downstairs for a glass of water, she had been transported right back to the beginning. She seemed confused, disoriented at first, and then really, _truly _angry. He toyed with the thought of leaving her there to figure things out for herself, but decided that he liked the hot flush on her cheeks as she raged at him about the injustice of it all. Really, though, she should have seen it coming. She knew him; she knew he could be cruel.

"Oh, _that's _not fair." She pouted as he brought her back to the beginning of the Labyrinth. "I _beat _you; you have no power over me!"

Jareth, for all his kingly grace, couldn't help but laugh out. "Sarah mine, don't you get it yet?" He said, and spun her around in to a breath of a kiss-that-wasn't. "_Life's _not fair."

And he left her to find Hoggle again, poor thing, and to face his Labyrinth until _he _got it right.

* * *

She didn't bother running to find the worm; instead, she paid very close attention to Hoggle. _I wouldn't go either way… _He spoke as if he had never met her, and Sarah wondered whether or not the Goblin King had intended for her to keep her memories.

She didn't turn right nor left. Instead, she held her hand to the wall and passed straight through.

* * *

"I am going to beat you." She told him defiantly in the darkness of the oubliette, aware of his presence even though she couldn't see him. "I am going to figure out whatever foolish game you have set me against and I _will _win back my freedom." She knew this Labyrinth; after all, it was only the fourth time that he had made her run it. She stepped boldly through the darkness, hands outreached, until she found the door she was looking for.

He dragged poet's fingers over the back of her blouse, and smiled. "Oh, Sarah, I can't wait until I have that fierce determination on my side."

She snorted. "Not in this lifetime, Romeo."

"Of course." He whispered against her neck before she opened the door and blinded him with the sun."Oh, you precious thing. I am willing to wait."

* * *

She was hungry, and everything that she ate took her back to that dream; a ballroom, an audience, and a King who didn't dare masquerade.

"You'll _never _win, you know." She told him. "I've beaten you six times now; how many more times must I beat you until I win my freedom?"

Jareth laughed. "Oh, darling, would you like to know what sort of fruit grows in the walls of my Labyrinth?"

She blinked, and nearly tripped over her beast of a dress. "Peaches, right? That's all I've seen."

"Ah darling, my pretty thing, there are no peaches; only the future fruit."

"Why is it called that?" She asked as the clock struck twelve and freed her from the ballroom spell.

"Because," he told her retreating back as she reached for the chair that would shatter his world, "that's where you go when you eat it."

* * *

"Really Jareth; there's spoiled, and then there's spoiled, and then there's you." Sarah said as the world stopped spinning to reveal that she was back at the beginning of the Labyrinth. "How long are you going to make me run your silly Labyrinth?"

Jareth's grin was fast and sure. "Really Sarah, I thought you read that silly little book of yours." Sarah pouted at the patronizing tone in his voice. He threw a crystal at her, and it broke at her feet in the form of her book. _Labyrinth. _"Perhaps you should ask that silly Hog-friend of yours."

* * *

Surprisingly, she took his advice. After all, she had run the Labyrinth ten times now, and she was running out of ideas. She was certain that there was something that she was taking for granted, but…

"Take this _Labyrinth,_ for example." Hoggle told her as he patted the bracelet that would be back in her possession soon enough. "Even if you get to the center, you'll never get out."

Sarah was certain that her heart broke.

* * *

"You are never going to let me free, are you?" She asked Jareth, more weary than frightened by the twelfth time she defeated him.

"Sarah dear, don't you remember?" He asked, and patted her little book pointedly. "You truly _do _take too many things for granted…"

He left her be, on the dusty hills of the outskirts of the city, and she sighed. She was certainly not getting anywhere _now…_

She glanced down at her book and remembered what the wise man said. "Well, it all started with that cursed book; I suppose that is about as back as I can go."

So she sat, at the base of that hill, and began to read.

_Once upon a time…_

She read. She _remembered. _

* * *

"The Goblin King had fallen in love with the girl, and had given her _certain _powers." Sarah recited in the throne room, too exhausted to do anything but collapse in the throne that _was _his, but could just as easily be hers.

"I sent the boy back, you know." Jareth told her with a grin that was more mean than playful. "You must be _exhausted _of living up to my expectations of you."

She didn't notice, or she didn't care. She was too tired to know the difference. "How much of that book is the truth?"

"All of it, Sarah-mine. Every word, beginning to end."

"And my _certain powers_? What of them?"

"Haven't you figured that out Sarah? You were always so bright…" Jareth leaned against his throne and his Queen.

"Everyone else has forgotten that I have ran your Labyrinth _twenty seven times. _Only you and I remember anything. Does that have anything to do with it?"

"Observant as every, precious. Yes, that would be part of it." His smile was wicked, and she was certain that it boded badly.

"And the rest?" She asked wearily.

"Well, I did promise you forever." He pulled her close to his chest, and Sarah burst in to great rolling tears.

"It's not FAIR!" She sobbed against him, beating his chest with one fist will the other held tight to the only thing she knew wouldn't faded away - him.

"Ah, but Sarah, I never said I was."

* * *

_A/N: I don't own the Future Fruit. It is from Mirror Mask, which was originally devised to be a sequel to Labyrinth before it took on a life of its own. The fruit Valentine eats looks an awful lot like a certain peach our drugged-up heroine imbibes. _

_Also, this story started sweet and took a strange turn. I suppose I shall write the original idea later. Ciao. _


End file.
